Media

• A 2020 study in the scientific journal PLOS One analyzed economic data from over 3,500 Chinese adults and found that every additional centimeter of height was correlated with a 1.3% increase in a person's annual income. In Imperial units, this would mean that a 5' 6" person making $50,000 every year would earn an additional $2,000 for each extra inch of height.
• PLOS One study found that genetic markers correlated with height were also linked to higher cognitive ability and a lack of depression, thereby revealing how a healthy early environment helps humans develop into their full potential in every way - including with their height.
• Overall 32 of the 45 American presidents were taller than 5' 9". The average presidential height is 5' 11". Only three presidents - Martin Van Buren, Benjamin Harrison and James Madison - were 5' 6" or shorter. By contrast, nearly half of America's presidents (19) have been at least six feet tall, and all of the presidents who were shorter than 5' 9" were elected before the 20th century.
• A massive body of scientific literature proves that when humans discriminate based on height, it is often because of a primal instinct which associates body size with leadership ability.
• Researchers have found that height is associated with perceived masculinity and that men who said they were 6' 3" and 6' 4" received more responses on their dating apps than men who were described as 5' 7" and 5' 8"

• Research on systemic discrimination in hiring decisions has shown employers may reject shorter candidates even if their resume is similar to a taller applicant's, and they subconsciously associate positive workplace traits like confidence, competence, and physical ability with tallness.
• There's also a gendered component. Research conducted by Inas R Kelly, professor of economics at Loyola Marymount University, California, revealed marked differences in the effect of height on mean income by gender. "White men face a much larger premium for each additional 10cm than white women," she says, and that gap is even more pronounced for African Americans.

Being an inch shorter than average correlates with annual earnings of about 5% lower. But being an inch taller than average does not have much impact (though men who are about 4 or more inches taller than average earn slightly more. There are not many gains to being tall, but there is a clear penalty to shortness. The shorter men are, relative to average, the less they earn. Men more than 20% shorter than average (66 inches or less) earn at least 10% less.